Couples' Weeks Part 1: Jackunzel Week
by SassySunshine
Summary: Jackunzel Week was back in May, but whatever. These are my entries for Jackunzel Week, which will be followed next week by Mericcup week, and concluded with Everlark week. But for now, let's enjoy Jack and Rapunzel, shall we?
1. Day 1: Once in a Blue Moon

**I told you I'd upload something. Yeah, yeah, Jackunzel Week was back in like May or something. I decided to do my own entries for the prompt weeks of Jackunzel, Mericcup, and Everlark all throughout August, starting today. So here's Day 1 of Jackunzel Week.**

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**Jackunzel Week  
Day 1: Once in a Blue Moon**

The winter spirit knew something was different the moment he stumbled upon the tower. His eyes widen in surprise at the sight of it. The bricks make up a more than twenty-foot tall tower. The white-haired teen scours the area for any passages inside, but he only finds a locked window at the very top of the tower. He hesitates. Why would there be a tower in the middle of the woods, with merely a tower for entry? What kind of place is this, anyway?

He makes his decision, and he flies up to the window. He presses a hand against the glass and leans closer, shielding out the sunlight to get a better look at the inside of the place. He's shocked to find a girl around his age running around inside, doing chores. What's even more shocking is her _hair._ Jack estimates it at seventy feet. He scans the room to find that the hair spirals out _everywhere._ The more Jack watches the girl, the more he wants to know her name. And so, he pushes on the glass of the window, hoping to open it…only to find that it's pull, not push.

The moment Jack pulls the window open is the moment the blonde girl inside of the tower chooses to turn around. She instantaneously drops the broom she was holding and grabs a frying pan. _Yes, I believe the frying pan will defend me better._ The two figures stare at each other. The blonde girl starts backing up. Jack still sits, perched on the windowsill, with a lopsided grin on his face.

"Who are you…and why are you smiling like that?" the blonde girl asks, green eyes seemingly searching Jack's soul for an answer. Jack grins and steps down from the windowsill, setting his staff on the floor and putting his hands up.

"I'm Jack Frost. I'm not gonna hurt you."

"Why are you smiling? I want an answer," the girl snaps, keeping her distance from the wintery spirit.

"Well, to answer you, I'd like a name. I prefer to address people by their names, granted I don't come up with a nickname sooner than that. My brain is pretty active on coming up with one for you, actually," Jack replies. The girl pauses, still keeping the frying pan held out in front of her.

"My name is Rapunzel," she finally says. Jack grins at her.

"Alright, Punzie—"

"I said my name is Rapunzel."

"And I said I come up with nicknames for people, but if you insist. Alright, Rapunzel, I'm smiling because I'm not actually a person – a living person, that is. I'm a spirit. Jack Frost is the spirit of winter. It's once in a blue moon that a person actually believes in him and sees him," Jack says, picking up his staff from the floor. He sweeps the staff over his shoulder and begins walking around the room. He finds himself drawn to the mural on Rapunzel's wall.

"Can I stay? I'd like to hear about this."

Rapunzel bites her lip, and then she sets her frying pan down. The curiosity on Jack's face brings a grin to her own as she answers, "Sure."

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**Day 2 will be appearing tomorrow, so keep an eye out :)**


	2. Day 2: Legend

**Here's day 2, you lovely people :)**

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**Jackunzel Week  
Day 2: Legend**

Rapunzel grew up with nothing but her books to give her a glimpse at the outside world. When she got older, nobody was around to tell her that the sprites she read about in her books weren't real. That they were just legends. So off Rapunzel went with her days, believing that one day, maybe she would come into contact with one. She always hoped for one of the spring sprites, with the bouncy hair and high voices. She never expected a different legend to come crashing into her window one hot summer day.

The day started off normally. Gothel left a few hours to go into town. Rapunzel was left home to do the chores. She was downstairs when she heard the glass in her bedroom shatter. She threw down the duster and grabbed a frying pan from the kitchen – her weapon of choice, since it was always handy – and ran up to the room. And now she stands over a boy in a blue sweatshirt. The boy looks up at Rapunzel with wide, blue eyes. He reaches out and manages to grab his staff. Rapunzel holds the frying pan out, closer to the boy's face. _I'm not messing around._

"Who are you?" Rapunzel finally asks, eyes narrowed and entirely trained on the boy in front of her. The boy props himself up with one elbow, and he uses the hand without the staff to push the frying pan away.

"I'm Jack Frost—"

"Jack Frost?" Rapunzel interrupts. "B-But the legends and the books say that you're much older. _Old Man Winter?_ You're…you're a teenager."

"Yeah, and this is a staff, and that's a frying pan," Jack replies. "Yeah, I know what the legends say. They're legends. They're passed down from word of mouth and at some point they decided to write this stuff down and put it into books. Other books do say I'm young, not an old man. I've only come across a few that describe me accurately – as a teenager, that is."

"B-But what are you doing _here_?" Rapunzel questions. "It's kind of rude to just break into someone's tower without their permission."

"I was racing a dragon trainer," Jack answers. "He couldn't warn me about the tower in time. What's it even doing out here, anyway—"

"A dragon trainer? Hold on…what?" Rapunzel asks. "Jack, where do you come from and what the heck are you talking about?"

Jack sighs and leads Rapunzel over to her bed. He takes the frying pan from her hands and sets it down on the bedside table.

"You won't be needing this. Now, I'm technically dead. I drowned in a lake. I saved my sister from drowning, so the Man in the Moon chose to resurrect me and make me a Guardian. I joined two other Guardians named Merida and Hiccup, and we're protectors of the seasons. For whatever reason, my story spread around, but not theirs. Hiccup has a dragon who died with him, named Toothless. We like to race. Today we happened to be flying over here, and we figured it would just be a ride through the forest. Well, he saw the tower and tried to warn me, but it was too late. He's probably outside looking for me, as a matter of fact," Jack explains.

"So you and two other Guardians protect the seasons? I-It didn't say anything about Jack Frost being a Guardian in any of my books, though!" Rapunzel says.

"Well, I am. So are Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and the Sandman. We're all Guardians. Same with Merida and Hiccup. There's a lot more those legends didn't mention."


	3. Day 3: Make Hay While the Sun Shines

**Day 3 :)**

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**Jackunzel Week  
Day 3: Make Hay While the Sun Shines**

Rapunzel never considered seventeen years a long time. Okay, yes, seventeen years was nearly one fifth of one hundred, but it just seemed so short. That was, until, she met Jack Frost. Over the course of their friendship, Rapunzel listened to Jack's stories of how his life was cut short. That was when she realized seventeen is a long lifetime. Some people don't even survive childhood. It made Rapunzel rethink life.

"Punz? What are you doing?"

Jack's question comes into the room early one morning. The winter spirit perches on the edge of the windowsill, watching Rapunzel toss a few books into a basket. His eyes follow her while she walks across the room and gathers up some pieces of cloth she described to him a few months back. It's then Jack decides that Rapunzel is up to something. He leans forward.

"Punzie?"

Rapunzel finally looks up, startled to see Jack in the room. She drops and scatters the cloth in her hands. Jack arches an eyebrow as he pushes off of the windowsill and comes to the center of the room to help her pick up the items.

"Rapunzel, what are you doing? Why are you packing things?" he asks. Rapunzel collects the remaining materials from Jack and tosses them into the basket, and then she closes the lid of the basket. She finally sits down, leaning against the wall.

"I never considered seventeen years a long time until I met you, Jack. It made me realize that in seventeen years – seventeen _long_ years – I've done absolutely nothing with my life. I think it's time I left my tower for once. I-I was hoping…you'd be the one to help me out of here?" Rapunzel says, rubbing her arm shyly. Jack's eyes widen.

"Y-You want me…to help you…l-leave the tower? R-Rapunzel, if Gothel finds out, she's going to kill you," Jack sputters. Rapunzel looks at the wall, then the floor, and then finally into Jack's eyes.

"It's a risk I'm willing to take. You tell me all these amazing stories about Hiccup and Merida and the world outside and I just want to see it for once. Just one day. _Please,_ Jack."

Jack looks away, turning over the options in his head. Finally, he turns back toward Rapunzel, a grin slowly spreading across his face.

"Well then, we're wasting the day."

Later in the afternoon, once Rapunzel and Jack left the tower and went on a picnic, Jack asks Rapunzel, "So my stories…what did they teach you that made you want to leave the tower?"

Rapunzel grins.

"They told me to make hay while the sun shines."


	4. Day 4: Vestige

**Jackunzel Week  
Day 4: Vestige**

Their expressions mirror each others', though one of them is unaware of it. The white-haired teenager sits on the windowsill and watches the twenty-seven-year-old princess shake her head, trying to clear her mind of her thoughts. The winter spirit leans forward. _Please remember me. Please._

In an instant, the princess's eyes are on the windowsill. Jack's face breaks into a grin, but it falls back into a shocked expression when he realizes she's staring right through him. He watches her come up to the windowsill and pass right through him. A pang of hurt wells up in his chest as she looks out to the blue, wide-open sky. He waits for something, _anything_ to happen to make her suddenly see him, but she pulls away from the window when she hears the call of her husband of ten years.

"I'll be there in a minute, Flynn," Rapunzel calls down the stairwell. "Just give me a few more minutes to get the things I wanted to get."

Memories begin running through Jack's mind while Rapunzel walks around the room. He recalls how he'd come in through the window every day and greet her with a chilly breeze. She'd close the book she was reading and look up with a grin, and they'd spend the rest of the day together up in the tower. Jack vowed to help her out of her tower on her birthday, to go see the lights, in a boat on the water. But then Flynn Rider came, and Jack missed his chance.

Rapunzel stops at her bookshelf to collect the things she'd left behind when she got married. _Why didn't I come back ten years ago for this stuff?_ Rapunzel opens up the basket she brought with her and grabs a few books off of the shelf, reading the covers one by one as she places them inside. She stops when she reaches a cover with the words, _My Diary._ She hesitates before she opens it. Her eyes scan over page after page. Jack leans forward even more.

Rapunzel almost drops the book when she reads one of the last entries she ever wrote. _I am in love with Jack Frost. I just don't know if he feels the same. But he's going to take me to see the floating lights for my birthday, and I can't wait._ Then the princess turns slowly toward the window, a shiver running down her spine as she sees the figure sitting there.

Jack can remember the days when Rapunzel had to push locks of blonde hair from her eyes when he entered. Now, she brushes aside strands of brunette from her face. Her green eyes, the green eyes Jack had fallen in love with all of those years ago, widen and blink a few times. A corner of Jack's mouth twitches up, a remorseful look in his eyes.

"Jack?"

"Punzie."

No, Jackson Overland Frost is no longer a vestige of a friendship. He's no longer a memory. Rapunzel's jaw falls open at the sight of the boy who became her best friend through years of visits. Jack keeps himself poised on the edge of the windowsill. He's unprepared for Rapunzel to suddenly throw herself at him and engulf him in a hug. He uses his staff, hooked onto the old hook that Rapunzel would toss her hair onto, to keep them balanced and inside the room. Neither lets go for a long time.

Jack tries his best to get used to Rapunzel's slightly older frame. This isn't the teenage girl he met by accident one day. This is the lost princess of Corona. When they pull away, Jack adjusts the tiara on Rapunzel's head.

"It's been a long time, Punz," Jack says softly. "You've grown up."

The hurt feeling rises in Jack's chest again when he hears Flynn come up the stairs. Rapunzel turns around to see Flynn standing in the doorway.

"Rapunzel, who are you talking to?"

It occurs to Jack then that Rapunzel never once told Flynn Rider about her days she spent with him. The years that the two of them finally had someone to confide in. He was her best friend, and she never mentioned him once in her life. Rapunzel doesn't reply.

"You don't want to say nobody, but you don't want to say Jack Frost, either," Jack finally says, pain edging in his voice. "Just tell him nobody. That's who I am to him. Rapunzel, I was your best friend. Do you not remember telling me you were no longer alone after years with just Gothel? You never spoke about me to him, once, did you?"

Rapunzel looks at the floor.

"I-I sort…of…"

"Forgot," Jack says. "You forgot about me. I was left to another lonely ten years, Rapunzel! Do you know how painful that was? I watched you forget about me. I still came back here every day hoping for some sort of miracle. I was hoping that somehow, you'd come back and remember. You finally came back, but you didn't remember until you opened that diary and read what you wrote. You thought I was some insane hallucination you had, and that I wasn't real!"

Jack starts toward the window with a shake of his head.

"Tell him you were talking to nobody. Because I guess that's all I am, anyway. Nobody. And now, I'll go continue being nobody. Good-bye, Rapunzel."

Jack kisses Rapunzel on the mouth quickly, and then jumps out the window and into the wind before Rapunzel can react.

"Jack, come back!" she cries, running to the edge of the window. But by then, Jack has already gone.


	5. Day 5: It Takes Two to Tango

**I don't know how I feel about this one. It takes two to tango is a hard one to write. I did my best. I think.**

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**Jackunzel Week  
Day 5: It Takes Two to Tango**

"If she hadn't played the prank, we wouldn't even be here, Hic!"

"You did tell her some pretty mean things."

"I didn't mean to! She made me scared a-and mad, Hic! It's her fault that Pitch has all of us!"

"Jack, it's your fault too, you know. If you had learned to control your temper and kept your mouth shut, she wouldn't have gone running off and we wouldn't have had to look for her."

"See! She ran off, so it's her fault."

"Jack, you're not getting the point. Two people can be at fault, and it looks like both of you are at fault. Yes, she played the prank, but yes, you told her mean things. It takes two to tango, Jack."

Jack goes quiet at Hiccup's statement. He slumps against the bars of the cage with a huff. Hiccup crosses his arms at him.

"This is no way to escape, Jack."

"How are we supposed to escape? Pitch broke my staff – which you have to fix once we _do_ figure out how to get out – and he captured Toothless. Plus, we gotta rescue Punz and Merida once we get out of here." Jack shakes his head. _Yet another problem to get by._

"Now what kind of thinking is that, Jack?" Hiccup snaps.

"Hic, I don't even know how he managed to get us in the first place. That's the first problem. If he managed to _get_ us, how do you think we'll manage to get out?"

"I don't know! Jack, you're being stubborn. At least try to come up with something!" Hiccup says, throwing his hands up in exasperation. He kneels down to look at the bars of the cage. Jack sighs.

"Hic, I'm sorry, it's just—"

"The Big Four. It's been a long time since I've managed to catch even one of you, but now I've got all of you. _And _the dragon. Interesting, isn't it?"

Jack and Hiccup look down to see Pitch staring up at them, as well as Rapunzel and Merida. Jack looks over at the cage containing Merida and Rapunzel. He finds Rapunzel staring at him, a look of concern in her eyes. Jack tears his gaze away.

"What do ye want, Pitch?" Merida demands.

"The archer with the accent and the broken bow," Pitch addresses. Merida glares. Rapunzel lays a hand on Merida's shoulder.

"Don't let him get to you," she whispers. Rapunzel chooses then to look at Jack again, shame coming over her. _I let him get to me, and look where we ended up. We have to stop blaming each other for this. Maybe we're both at fault._

"Your powers, you see. You have so much leverage over children and the people of the world. Without you, everyone will become afraid, because the norm will suddenly be gone, and I'll retake my hold on everyone. I'll start by getting you all out of my way for good," Pitch says.

_Out of my way for good…_

The meaning registers in the fours' brains at once. They all turn to look at each other.

"You can't do that!" Hiccup protests first.

"Hiccup, shut up," Jack hisses. _You're showing fear._

"Now…who to start with?" Pitch says, looking up at his four captives. Jack leans forward, into the same position as Hiccup. _Please, not who I think it is._

"Ah, yes. Rapunzel."

Jack's grip on the bars of the cage becomes tighter as he watches Pitch conjure up a cloud of nightmare sand to take him up to the girls' cage. Merida shields Rapunzel, but her efforts prove futile when Pitch shoves her out of the way.

The nightmares rip Rapunzel away from the cage.

"J-Jack," Hiccup says quietly. "Don't freak out."

"Hic," Jack replies through grit teeth, "I have a way out of here."

"Jack?"

"You're right. It does take two to tango. It also takes two – one damsel in distress and one angry rescuer – to get people out of places. Watch out."

Hiccup watches Jack pick up the two broken pieces of his staff.

"Forget about fixing this, Hiccup."

Jack shoves the two ends together and channels all of his energy and thoughts of fun through him. Hiccup watches the blue energy travel into the staff, and in a burst of dazzling blue light, fix it. But the light grows stronger, and Hiccup and Jack find themselves falling. Hiccup manages to land on top of another cage. Jack hooks his staff onto another part of a cage and swings up above Pitch and Rapunzel. Rapunzel's eyes meet Jack's.

_Rapunzel, I am so sorry._

Jack bites his lip.

_I'm gonna get you out right now._


	6. Day 6: Safe-Haven

**Jackunzel Week  
Day 6: Safe-Haven**

The tower is the first place that comes to Jack's mind. Cloaked in the darkness that the forest always offers at night, Jack could easily escape the nightmares. They weren't as fast as him, and, granted he left no ice anywhere, they would never find him there. He takes off on the wind. After a while, the nightmares disappear from his sight. Jack grins slightly.

_Off to Rapunzel's tower we go._

It's a short ride to Rapunzel's tower. Jack is there in no time at all. He whips his head around, making sure the area is clear of any nightmares. Once he's sure he's alone, he flies up to the window, only to find that it's shut for the night. Jack taps on the glass. He looks inside and taps again. Rapunzel finally opens her sleepy eyes and nearly jumps at the sight of the winter spirit outside. Still in her nightgown, Rapunzel gets out of bed and gently pushes open the window to let Jack in.

"Jack?" she whispers as Jack comes into the room. Jack shuts the windows and locks them tightly before jumping up to the rafters above.

"Sorry for the intrusion," Jack whispers. "I lost some of Pitch's nightmares in the woods, and this was the only place I could think of where they wouldn't find me." Rapunzel nods, still slightly confused as she sits back down on her bed.

"How did you manage to get chased by nightmares?" she asks softly.

"Well, I sort of found them," Jack begins sheepishly. "I was wandering around in the woods around here because I had nothing to do, and I found another entrance to Pitch's lair. They seem to be in every forest I find, apparently. He had nightmares around – I guess they were gearing up for something – and they found me and started to chase me. I lost them and came here. I hope that if I stay hidden in here for a while they'll stop looking for me and I can get out of here."

Rapunzel arches an eyebrow. Jack grins.

"Not that staying here is terrible. It's basically my second home, other than Burgess," he says. "Call it my safe-haven, if you will." The corners of Rapunzel's mouth twitch up into grins. Jack smiles at the blonde girl and leans back on one of the rafters.

"For now, I'm staying up here. Even if the nightmares see the windows, they can't see me if they look in."


	7. Day 7: Better to Have Loved and Lost

**This is the last one for Jackunzel Week!**

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**Jackunzel Week  
Day 7: Better to Have Loved and Lost than Never to Have Loved at All**

The snow comes down heavily as the boy treks through the woods. His companions linger behind him, giving him sad nods. The teen hangs his head as he comes to what he was looking for. He sits on the log he dragged over nearly a year ago. He doesn't bother to clear the snow off. He hasn't bothered to do much at all since the day everything changed. Tears sting his eyes, but he refuses to let them make their way over his eyelids. He keeps himself huddled into his hoodie against the cold.

"Hey," he greets softly. "How are you?" The boy pauses. He went and saw the girl yesterday. He came to visit every day, and he continues to do so. He waits for a reply before carrying on the conversation.

"I've been…better. I'm doing alright, though. It's hard to cope, but I guess it's getting better," he says softly. He moves his hand up and brushes snow from the stone in front of him. He grimaces at the etching on it that Hiccup put on it when they first constructed it. The lonely, lost feeling rises in his chest again. Flashbacks of her laugh, her smile, just _her_ come crashing through his mind.

"Oh, Punz," he whispers, putting his head in his hands. "Who am I kidding? You're not buying this. I'm the same wreck I was a year ago. Hiccup and Merida have moved on, and they're trying to help. They're trying so hard but…I can't let go, Rapunzel."

Jack squeezes his eyes, trying so hard not to let the tears flow. The grip on his staff gets tighter, and the snow falls harder.

"I thought…I thought for sure that you would be chosen as the protector of spring. That's when you had the most life. You knew me, and you knew Merida and Hiccup…it would have been perfect. I would've finally gotten the chance to tell you…that…that I _loved you._ I thought you would be chosen… I waited too long to tell you, Rapunzel. But I'll say it now. _I love you._"

Jack sits there for a long period of time before finally pushing up off of the log and brushing some snow from his pants. He looks up and motions Hiccup and Merida to leave with his eyes. The two nod and walk away ahead of him. Jack trudges away.

_"It's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."_

Jack turns at the whisper and finds nobody there. He looks up at the sky and swears he feels a warmth on his lips.

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**Tomorrow, check my profile for _Couples' Weeks Part 2: Mericcup Week_**


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